A few pics
Topic: Stephen Says
As promised...

First off the bat, this is me suffering fr art as the pizzs that were placed on my eyes were really quite hot:

Elisabeth rocking out and doing some recording:

And finally, a birds eye view of the state our flat was in after the manic art night we had this past Friday:

The touques were, of course, necessary as there's no damn heating in our flat and there's no one living below us to let us sponge heat off of. The good side of this, however, is that our electricity company owes us 40 pounds for over estimating the amount of energy we use.

Blah blah continued
Now Playing: Beirut - Gulag Orkestra / The Lon Gisland EP
Topic: Stephen Says
Bah! I was going to put up some pictures but the computer decided that the camera's battery was flat so now I can't.

Another week and what can I say? Not too much to be honest - E&I worked and spent our first weekend together in ages which has been very, very pleasant. It's nice to be reminded that we get along really quite well and don't hate each others guts. Long may love last.

Any post-Christmas dieting has gone out the window as Elisabeth and I have been gorging ourselves on utter crap (and not quite so crap) and she has been managing to drink more than me over the last few days which is quite spooky. That said, I think she's needed a good dose of unwinding for a while and it's nice to see her cut loose. She's all aplogetic for it now and is making an Armenian soup for dinner while I drink Carlsberg and eat bubbly mint crisp flavoured chocolate on a crunchy chocolate biscuit covered in milk chocolate.

I was dragged into Guildford yesterday where we window shopped, bought music and gorged ourselves on Indian food for lunch. A meal that reduced Elisabeth to an IQ of about 12 as papadoms and aloo gobi replaced her brain cells. I, however, stuck to the biryani, naan and pints of Kingfisher so that I was able to let out farts repugnant enough to upset the emo kid in our carriage so much that he and his fake Keds had to turn away from me in disgust.

Today was a typical paper & pub day for me while Elisabeth shopped for Egypt-wear. e.g., cool conservative clothes for a hot Muslem country.

(Tha's gotta be a great title for something.)

Another week begins soon where I will work (Not that I haven't this weekend as I was receiving particulary annoying 'what do I do?' phone calls all Friday night and more calls today which I've chosen to ignore), Elisabeth will work, etc... She's got another driving test on Thursday and I'm spending Valentines day doing a sleep in. Ah the romance! Can you smell it?

Smells like a biryani passed through my system.

Pics to follow should the laptop decide the camera's battery is suficiently charged...

Blah blah
Now Playing: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?
Topic: Stephen Says
Been a busy couple of days for me - I worked 9 days without a break and as such have come slightly close to losing my mind (There was a dark spot around 10AM yesterday where I may have actually lost it of a half hour). I've got my one day off today and E is out tonight getting a free reflexology treatment so I'm going to wallow in my own crapulence, get boozy and watch violent films (Depending on what Blockbuster's got, I'm thinking: Day of the Dead, The Devil's Rejects, Battle Royale, Suspira...)

I'll also be rocking out a little. Got the new Of Montreal and Cult of Luna albums so I can go all bi-polar by alternating between feel-good-glam-pop and Swedish Doom metal. Huzzah!

It's cold again in England and we're expecting two fingers of snow on Friday and I can hear the Apocalypse Siren sounding as people prepare for the end of civilised life. I feel a little superior on my bike as I zip past people scraping off their cars however an asswipe in a Vauxhaul pissed me off the other day and almost gave me some kind of come-uppance: I was at an intersection & saw him coming and was in one of those Do Not Hesitate situations where if I hesitated, I would have to wait for him to pass. I didn't (for once!) and started to go except that the dingus in the Vauxhaul accelerated to cut me off only he was also turning right so he had to break very suddenly as well and skidded into the intersection and came pretty damn close to hitting me. Of course, I hadn't moved because I'd seen the loser's plan but wasn't expecting him to turn right because, leah, I'm rambeling. It was annoying, anyway.

As Elisabeth has already mentioned, we went to see Pinter's The Dumbwaiter last night. I really, really liked it; Elisabeth didn't. I suspect that she thought it was going to be something it wasn't. In any case, it starred comedian Lee Evans and Jason Issacs (aka Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter films). So in terms of the Elisabeth and me seeing Harry Potter movie actors competition, she leads 2-1.

Condensation Conversation
Mood:  lazy
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Niagra Falls is streeming down our windows this morning, despite the dehumidifyer. This means that the temperature outside is cold enough to feel like Feb. in England. Before I go to work, I'll mop up the pool of water that when overflows, trickles into all of our electrical equipment.

To catch up the last few days...over the weekend we went out with Stephen's co-workers, Stephen then worked and I chilled out.

Today we're going to see The Dumb Waiter by H. Pinter in London. We're taking the fellow that I've been tutoring.

Not much more to say right now...

White Rabbits!
Now Playing: See below
Topic: Stephen Says
I don't know if anyone out there reading this is into the whole doom metal/ math rock/ post metal scene (Of which there are, as far as I can tell exactly 4 bands of any note) But holy shit, Isis is the best thing since sliced bread (Or at least Neurosis) and is definitely this seasons black. Just picked up thir new album "In the Absence of Truth" and it's about to garner heavy airplay on our CD player much to, I'm sure, Elisabeth's displeasure. Their previous album "Panopticon" is also pretty much holy shit amazing.

And on a completely seperate musical vein, I can't stress how amazing The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is. Their album "The Secet of Life" is just jaw droppingly good and features the most amazing versions of classics like Miss Dyno-mite, Hard to Handle and Le Freak performed by a ukulele orchestra that you'll ever hear. If you want to take a chance on something totally random that will knock your socks off, this is the most important thing you'll buy this month.

It's team building day tomorrow so if I remember, I'll bring the camera so you can see lots of pictures of me and Elisabeth making an ass out of ourselves.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: No Means No (Dance of the Headless Borgeouise)
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Stephen has just eaten an apple in one bite. A whole apple. He just put it into his mouth and ate core, pips, stem and all.

But why? We'll never know.

Winding down
Now Playing: random 'new rave' songs
Topic: Stephen Says
Huh. It feels like the blog is winding down a little bit. We always planned for it to be a 5 year project that spanned our five years in England, however over the last 6-8 weeks there hasn't been much activity either from Elisabeth and myself or from our visitors (down from over 300 a day [yikes!] to twenty-four [mostly Elisabeth and myself]). So what does this mean?

Does the blog have a mind of its own and is it telling us something?

As some of you out there may be aware, I'm going to be effectively demoted in April (or earlier) thanks to one of my favorite pieces of beaurocratic jargon: 'management inefficiency.' In other words, had upper management been efficient and confirmed my post months ago instead of dragging their feet, forgetting and {insert any other random excuse in here}, and I'm losing my position to someone who is less skilled and appropriate for the position.

As it is, I'm 95% likely to be leaving the job when she comes in since I've been effectively rendered useless(I'm using the time in Egypt to formalize my final decision - I don't want to be too spontanious with this - that's what got us coming to England in the first place). And since that means that I'll have to find a job in our last year here (Which will be tedious and I'd only most likely be there for a maximum of 9 months anyway) and since Elisabeth isn't exactly married to her job, there's no reason why we don't move back to Canada this spring/ summer.

Elisabeth has been considering this longer than I have and says it would be amazingly easy to just pack up and go (keep in mind that she works in shipping) with just a few weeks notice.

The downside is that we've started to put down roots here and we'll really miss our friends but that's really the only negative. Anyway, things to ponder...

Bad Luck...
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
I didn't pass the driving test. Yes, a few tears are split, but I will retake the test in about 3 weeks.

I would have passed the test if I hadn't crossed a padestrian crossing when pedestrians were waiting to cross.

Why did I cross it? Well there were two parked lorries obstructing my view on either side. Which also meant the lorry was obstructing my lane, and it took me a long time to get an opening to move forward...so of course I wasn't planning on having to stop once I had the opportunity to move.

But see, there I am, a dangerous driver, and going over that zebra crossing was an automatic fail.

Otherwise, I did everything well enough to pass.

Shit eh?

Well, hopefully it'll make me a safer driver, and I will take a few more lessons to sharpen my skills before taking the test again...I will then treasure this license like no license before...you'd think that driving for 5 years in North America would have given me the skills necessary to pass a driving test in England...

It Snowed in Surrey!
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: AC Newman
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
Check out these pictures, it's actually snowed in England in winter!

It was really exciting to wake up and all of a sudden see snow...of course it reminded us of home.

And it all melted by mid-day....boo hoo. Hopefully the weather will be good tomorrow morning as I have my driving test...confident that I am prepared and a competant driver...but there's always that element of f-ing up for no reason...but I'm sure it'll be fine.

January's almost over, we've had snow, and life is good.

I am the Biggest Asshole in the World
Mood:  down
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
I am the Biggest Assohole in the World (BAW). Why?

I went to see Happy Days at the National Theatre Last Night and forgot to turn off my phone.

And thank the Lord above, no one call, no one sent a text message...but it COULD have happened. I would have been mortified and scarred for the rest of my life. Nevermind have completely ruined one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen.

Happy Days, but Samuel Beckett is often classified as an "existentialist" piece of theatre, but could just as easily be classified as a realist piece of theatre.

Ok, so a women is burried up to her waist in earth for the first half, and up to her head in the second half, but take away the visual of the earth, and ask yourself, how many people do you know (including yourself) are restricted, confined and alone? What realities do you try to ignore in order to just "get on with it?"

And Fiona Shaw, the main (and almost only) actor, was sublime. Such command, awareness and humour...I feel priviledged to have witnessed her at work.

Anyway, Stephen's off to do a sleep-in at work, and I'm just bumming along....